Toronto 2012: Contemporary World Cinema

A look at the CWC world premieres including Baby Blues [pictured] from Polish director Katarzyna Roslaniec.

A Werewolf Boy (S Kor)

Dir Jo Sung-hee

The story of a girl who tries to civilise a feral boy she discovers in the grounds of a country house. Song Joong-ki and Park Bo-young star.

Contact CJ Entertainment - www.cjent.co.kr/eng/

All That Matters Is Past (Nor)

Dir Sara Johnsen

Maria Bonnevie, Kristoffer Joner and David Dencik star in this Norwegian-language drama about an estranged couple who rekindle their romance - only to be hunted down by the man’s brother.

Contact TrustNordisk - info@trustnordisk.com

Baby Blues (Pol)

Dir Kasia Roslaniec

Polish director Roslaniec follows debut Mall Girls with this drama about teenage pregnancy. Magdalena Berus, a 17-year-old newcomer, was chosen to play the lead over 8,000 candidates in Mental Disorder 4 and Zentropa International Poland’s first Polish-language project.

Comrade Kim Goes Flying (Bel-N Kor-UK)

Dirs Anja Daelemans, Nicholas Bonner, Gwang Hun Kim

Shot in Pyongyang, the fourth feature produced by the British Koryo Group is the first Western-financed fiction feature made entirely in North Korea. It charts a young female coalminer’s aspirations to become a trapeze artist.

Contact info@anotherdimension.be

The Cowards Who Looked To The Sky (Jap)

Dir Yuki Tanada

Based on Misumi Kubo’s novel, Tanada’s erotic drama follows a group of people whose lives intersect.

Contact Toei Company - international@toei.co.jp

The Cremator (Chi)

Dir Peng Tao

Peng’s third feature is about a lonely man at a crematorium who decides to marry a dead woman when he is diagnosed with lung cancer. His plan is complicated further by the arrival of a young girl looking for her sister. Heaven Pictures produces.

Crimes Of Mike Recket (Can)

Sweeney’s Excited was a world premiere at Toronto in 2009 and he returns with this police procedural. Produced by Sweeney and Rafi Spivak, the film stars Nicholas Lea.

Contact Rafi Spivak - rafispivak@telus.net

Eagles (Isr)

Dir Dror Sabo

Sabo’s feature debut Dead End won a best Israeli feature award at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2006. His second film follows two ex-soldiers who undertake a vigilante campaign on the streets of Tel Aviv.

Contact HOT - www.hot.net.il

The End (Sp)

Dir Jorge Torregrossa

Torregrossa’s feature debut The End (Fin), produced by Mod Producciones, Apaches Entertainment, Misent Producciones and Antena 3 Films, is a thriller about a group of friends who spend a weekend in the mountains. Maribel Verdu, Blanca Romero and Clara Lago star. Sony distributes in Spain.

Contact Film Factory Entertainment - info@filmfactory.es

The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (US)

Dir Edward Burns

Seven adult siblings from a working-class, Irish-American family must deal with their estranged father’s desire to return home for Christmas for the first time since he walked out on the family 20 years earlier. Actor-director Burns has likened the film to his debut The Brothers McMullen, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 1995.

Contact Cinetic Media - info@cineticmedia.com

God Loves Caviar (Gr-Rus)

Dir Iannis Smaragdis

Sebastian Koch, John Cleese, Catherine Deneuve and Juan Diego Botto are in the cast of Smaragdis’ biopic of Ioannis Varvakis, a Greek pirate turned merchant who became the head of one of the largest mercantile empires in Europe.

Contact Sony Pictures Worldwide Distribution - info@sony.com

Gone Fishing (Arg)

Dir Carlos Sorin

A regular at Toronto, Argentinian writer-director Sorin returns with a film about a travelling salesman’s attempts to change his life and find his estranged daughter.

Contact Kramer & Sigman Films - info@ks-films.com

The Great Kilapy (Angola-Bra-Por)

Dir Zeze Gamboa

Having brought his debut feature The Hero to Toronto in 2004, Gamboa returns with The Great Kilapy, a drama centred around Angola’s independence from Portuguese colonial administration in the mid-1970s.

Contact David & Golias - mail@david-golias.com

The Holy Quaternity (Czech Rep)

Dir Jan Hrebejk

Viktorie Cermakova, Marika Prochazkova, Hynek Cermak and Jiri Langmajer star as two middle-aged couples linked by a lifelong friendship and love. Hrebejk was last in Toronto with his 2009 comedy Shameless.

Imagine (Pol-Fr-Por)

The English-language debut of Tricks director Jakimowski, Imagine is a drama starring Edward Hogg as an instructor for the blind who tries to help Alexandra Maria Lara’s Eva overcome her shyness.

Contact Film & Music Entertainment - office@fame.uk.com

In The Name Of Love (Viet)

Dir Luu Huynh

Luu Huynh’s third feature tells the story of a loving wife who turns to another man to be a surrogate father after her husband is unable to give her a child. Huynh’s second feature, The White Silk Dress, was Vietnam’s official selection for the foreign-language category for the 2007 Academy Awards.

Contact Vietnam Media Corporation - intsales@bhdvn.com

Juvenile Offender (S Kor)

Dir Kang Yi-kwan

After winning the Fipresci award for his debut feature Sa-Kwa at TIFF in 2005, Kang returns to Toronto with Juvenile Offender. Seo Young-joo takes the lead role as a 15-year-old under probation who is reunited with the mother he thought was dead.

Contact Finecut - cineinfo@finecut.co.kr

The Land Of Hope (Jap)

Dir Sion Sono

Prolific Japanese director Sono’s latest film follows the Ono family as they struggle to survive in the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami and nuclear crisis.

Contact Pictures Dept - picturesdept@picturesdept.com

The Lesser Blessed (Can)

Dir Anita Doron

Benjamin Bratt stars alongside Joel Evans, Kiowa Gordon and Chloe Rose in this coming-of-age story about a teenager living on a First Nations reserve. Director Doron, a TED Fellow, adapted the screenplay from Richard Van Camp’s novel.

My Awkward Sexual Adventure (Can)

Dir Sean Garrity

In this comedy, an uptight accountant while trying to win back his unsatisfied ex enlists the help of an exotic dancer on a quest for sexual experience. Writer Jonas Chernick stars in the film alongside Emily Hampshire, Sarah Manninen and Vik Sahay.

Contact Phase 4 Films - sales@phase4films.com

Once Upon A Time, Veronica (Bra- Fr)

Dir Marcelo Gomes

A participant in last year’s San Sebastian Films in Progress section, Gomes’ Once Upon A Time, Veronica tells the story of a woman whose father asks her to find love before he passes away.

Contact Urban Distribution International - www.urbandistribution.com

The Patience Stone (Afg-Fr)

Dir Atiq Rahimi

Adapted from his own novel of the same name, The Patience Stone follows a young Afghan woman, played by Golshifteh Farahani, as she struggles to look after her bedridden husband, a former fighter left braindead after being shot in the neck.

Contact Le Pacte - www.le-pacte.com

Peripeteia (UK-Neth)

Dir John Akomfrah

The much-lauded UK filmmaker of Ghanian heritage follows The Nine Muses with this story that imagines the lives of a black man and woman who are seen in a 16th-century drawing by Albrecht Dürer.

Contact info@smokingdogsfilms.com

Three Kids (Bel)

Dir Jonas D’Adesky

This debut feature follows three 12-year-olds in a boarding school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who live on the street following an earthquake.

Contact Helicotronc - info@helicotronc.com

Underground (Aus)

Dir Robert Connolly

Newcomer Alex Williams stars as a young Julian Assange with his band of hacker friends in Melbourne in this project from the director of Balibo. Produced by Matchbox Pictures, Underground started as a TV project for Australia’s Channel 10. The cast also features Anthony LaPaglia, Rachel Griffiths and Callan McAuliffe.

Contact NBCUniversal - www.nbcuni.com

Virgin Margarida (Mozambique)

Dir Licinio Azevedo

The Brazilian-born film-maker again presents an unknown side of Mozambique, this time drawing on stories of real women who in the 1970s were sent to harsh re-education camps to turn them from prostitutes to “new women”.

Contact Ukbar Films - www.ukbarfilmes.com

Watchtower (Turk-Ger-Fr)

Dir Pelin Esmer

In this Turkish drama, a man coming to terms with tragedy takes a job as a fire warden in the wilderness, where he is drawn to a mysterious young woman. The film was pitched at Berlin’s co-production market in 2011.

Contact Sine Film - www.sinefilm.com

What Richard Did (Ire)

Dir Lenny Abrahamson

The Garage director returns with this story about privileged teens whose lives are changed after a senseless act of violence. The cast includes Jack Reynor, Roisin Murphy, Sam Keeley and Lars Mikkelsen. Irish producers Element Pictures are again on board and will handle the Irish release.

Contact Protagonist Pictures - www.protagonistpictures.com

When I Saw You (Pal-Jor-Gr)

Dir Annemarie Jacir

The Salt Of This Sea director returns with this drama set in 1967, when a boy and his mother are displaced from their home in the West Bank to a refugee camp in Jordan. The project won backing from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Tribeca All Access.

Contact The Match Factory - michael.weber@matchfactory.de

Zabana! (Algeria)

Dir Said Ould-Khelifa

This film by Ould-Khelifa (Le Thé D’Ania) is the story of Algerian freedom fighter Ahmed Zabana, whose 1956 execution sparked the Battle of Algiers.

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